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I recommend watching that video very highly. I cannot stress enough just how insightful it is, and how good the information is. Most often you get some wishy-washy BS with no hard science and no real information. This guy is hard core and doesn't dumb things down. He has actual information and explains it intelligently. That being said, put your thinking cap on as it will challenge you unless you are well educated in biochemistry.

I hang out in some other forums and the topic came up here. (I can most certainly say that the quality of posting here is infinitely higher. DC is a much better place for discussion by light years. Thoughtfulness in posts, courtesy, etc.)

Anyways, I rarely drink soda and try very hard to eliminate most sugar from my diet with the exception of sugar in fresh food like oranges, melons, carrots, etc.

My "soda" is actually drinking vinegar (I mentioned it a long time ago here) in sparkling mineral water. (I just ran out and need to buy more, but it's kind of hard to find and there's only 1 Korean store here that I've found that has it.)

Anyways, just wondering about people here. How much do you drink?

Also, I wanted to use the poll to suck people in and find out what people think about banning the use of food stamps for soda. Good? Bad? Ugly? Non-issue? Not far enough?

I used to drink an insane amount of diet soda (around 3 liters a day) but currently drink an average of less than a glass per month.

I have a hatred of liquid sugar, so I never drink the stuff with the HFC added...only diet. Regular sodas make me feel like I am growing hair on my teeth. (yuck!)

From what I understand, New York originally wanted a whole lot more than a ban on sodas for this...they wanted to ban anything containing any type of sugar or HFC (and sugar itself), including breakfast cereals, cookies, instant oatmeal, candy, snack cakes, pancake syrup, cake & muffin mixes, jellies & jams, etc...with plans on broadening it to included things with added fats and salt, in the future. If they had their way, there wouldn't be anything left for people to buy and food stamps would be a complete joke.

And while a ban from buying this stuff with food stamps will stop people from using food stamps to buy it, it won't stop people from buying it. Instead they will have to use their cash allowance they receive from the government to do it, money that would have been used to buy clothes for their kids, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc.

They can't really stop buying it since the majority of the small juice box drinks approved for children to take to school in their lunch boxes are on the ban list. The remaining ones are insanely expensive. Each family needs to purchase 20 juice boxes per school aged child, per month, unless the school has cooking facilities and a free lunch program they are eligible for (some small schools in rural areas don't). Sold in packs of 3, that is about $10.50 per child, per month. If they use their food stamps to get the approved juices, it's about twice that. Considering the program only allows a max of about $75 per family member, per month, that's a pretty big chunk to force poor people to pay.

And the free lunch program isn't better than sending your kid to school with a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a HFC loaded juice drink (fortified with vitamin C), since the federal govt allows schools to do stupid stuff like call packets of relish and ketchup nutritious vegetables and substitute a few corn chips in place of bread.

I used to drink an insane amount of diet soda (around 3 liters a day) but currently drink an average of less than a glass per month.

I have a hatred of liquid sugar, so I never drink the stuff with the HFC added...only diet. Regular sodas make me feel like I am growing hair on my teeth. (yuck!)

From what I understand, New York originally wanted a whole lot more than a ban on sodas for this...they wanted to ban anything containing any type of sugar or HFC (and sugar itself), including breakfast cereals, cookies, instant oatmeal, candy, snack cakes, pancake syrup, cake & muffin mixes, jellies & jams, etc...with plans on broadening it to included things with added fats and salt, in the future. If they had their way, there wouldn't be anything left for people to buy and food stamps would be a complete joke.

And while a ban from buying this stuff with food stamps will stop people from using food stamps to buy it, it won't stop people from buying it. Instead they will have to use their cash allowance they receive from the government to do it, money that would have been used to buy clothes for their kids, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc.

They can't really stop buying it since the majority of the small juice box drinks approved for children to take to school in their lunch boxes are on the ban list. The remaining ones are insanely expensive. Each family needs to purchase 20 juice boxes per school aged child, per month, unless the school has cooking facilities and a free lunch program they are eligible for (some small schools in rural areas don't). Sold in packs of 3, that is about $10.50 per child, per month. If they use their food stamps to get the approved juices, it's about twice that. Considering the program only allows a max of about $75 per family member, per month, that's a pretty big chunk to force poor people to pay.

And the free lunch program isn't better than sending your kid to school with a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a HFC loaded juice drink (fortified with vitamin C), since the federal govt allows schools to do stupid stuff like call packets of relish and ketchup nutritious vegetables and substitute a few corn chips in place of bread.

I think if they did ban a lot more, the producers would respond with alternatives. e.g. The "jam" I buy has no added sugar. It's just pure fruit spread. There are a *few* things out there that you can get without sugar.

For juice boxes, that problem is easily solved. It's called a thermos. My mom sent me to school with one. Orange juice. Apple juice.

I didn't know that "relish" was a vegetable. That's some pretty impressive lobbying.

My wife and I buy mostly fresh food and very little packaged or canned food. A lot of the time it's actually cheaper to eat like that. I notice a very real difference as well. When we eat fresh food, our energy levels are higher and we're more productive. When we eat crap, we get tired.

I had a McDonald's sausage egg mcmuffin a few weeks back. It nearly knocked me out.

Dunno. I just find that fresh food doesn't give me "food coma". The other night I made tacos. All fresh ingredients. I love the stuff. Pigged out massively. But I didn't get food coma. I was overstuffed, but not passed out.

My bad habit right now in terms of drinks is coffee. I bet I've drank more coffee in the past two years since remarrying than in the previous thirty years! My wife's a big coffee fan. I suppose I've picked up the habit. During the week, it's not bad -- maybe one or two coffee daily. But on weekends, it can be 4-6 coffee daily. I'm sure that's too much: although, I'm sleeping fine.

Pure cane sugar vs. HFC isn't really the issue, going through a case of the stuff (regardless of what it's sweetened with) a day is the issue. Anything in moderation is fine. I usually have a Coke with lunch and I may or may not have 1 or 2 in the evening. Usually I just drink water as it's generally what the body is actually after...and it's free.

If NYC wants to ban something, they should ban those (the-new-cocaine) energy drinks. Slamming those things by the dozen can't be good for you ... Unless your objective is to burn-out by the age of 35.

The herbs go into a special cup, which is in turn filled up with water. A special kind of metal/silver straw with filter is then used to drink the water. Very healthy. Maybe NYC should lobby to get this stuff to the United States.

The herbs go into a special cup, which is in turn filled up with water. A special kind of metal/silver straw with filter is then used to drink the water. Very healthy. Maybe NYC should lobby to get this stuff to the United States.

20 kg? WOW~!

That's amazing!

I remember meeting a friend that I'd not seen for a few years in 2002 or so. He had been quite overweight, but not grotesquely so. When I saw him in 2002 he was rail thin. I thought he had gotten sick. He answered that the only thing that changed was that he'd turned on to green tea and was drinking about 20 cups a day.

Your medicinal herb story really isn't very surprising for me. But it certainly reaffirms a few things for me.

But the straw is a surprise. Does it really have an affect? Would a normal one not be as effective? Could you post a picture of one?

BTW the video (link in first post) is very worth a look/listen (I actually listened to it in the background mostly having a look the odd time when he's showing tables).

He does ramble a fair bit at the beginning, but it is a fascinating (& scary at times) story/proof with various sciences, history, politics etc. The most interesting thing really was that the research that 30(?) years of fat-avoidance was based on was totally flawed. Ironically the ingredient used to make up for the reduction in fat was sugar. He then shows that it was sugar that was causing most of the problems (weight included) all along.... He does touch on the problem being also related to the combination of sugar and other carbohydrates (mentions doughnuts) which could explain the 'success' of E√≥in's Coke only diet. I remember years ago an aquaintance going on a mars-bars only diet (I think it was a fad for a while) - I cant remember how long it lasted - she lost weight but one day she collapsed and gave up mars bars after that :-)

I remember years ago an aquaintance going on a mars-bars only diet (I think it was a fad for a while) - I cant remember how long it lasted - she lost weight but one day she collapsed and gave up mars bars after that :-)

my mother tried such a scheme on my sister and i when we were young. so fed up with us eating candy was she, that she proclaimed we would eat nothing but candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, until we were sick of candy and ready to give it up.

my memory of the experiment was that she lasted for a couple of days and then had to give up the experiment due to a catastrophic failure in predicted outcome

He does touch on the problem being also related to the combination of sugar and other carbohydrates (mentions doughnuts) which could explain the 'success' of E√≥in's Coke only diet. I remember years ago an aquaintance going on a mars-bars only diet (I think it was a fad for a while) - I cant remember how long it lasted - she lost weight but one day she collapsed and gave up mars bars after that :-)

My logic was just about counting calories. For example a can of coke is only about 140 calories which is the same as maybe two biscuits, but for me at least the coke is much more filling. That said I know I was taking in too much sugar, plus I probably got hooked on the stuff Nonetheless it's surprising just how little calories there is in coke, certainly less than much other, non-diet, sodas and juice drinks.

Logged

Interviewer: Is there anything you don't like?Bjarne Stroustrup: Marketing hype as a substitute for technical argument. Thoughtless adherence to dogma. Pride in ignorance.

I've gotten into the habit of drinking Perrier with a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice. The resulting burp can rattle the walls but my stomach feels great once the echo dies away. I've abandoned other carbonated beverages. I'm sure the water is healthy but not so the junk snacks I use to get thirsty to enjoy the Perrier. Seems I can't watch a movie without eating something crunchy out of a bag.

I remember years ago an aquaintance going on a mars-bars only diet (I think it was a fad for a while) - I cant remember how long it lasted - she lost weight but one day she collapsed and gave up mars bars after that :-)

my mother tried such a scheme on my sister and i when we were young. so fed up with us eating candy was she, that she proclaimed we would eat nothing but candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, until we were sick of candy and ready to give it up.

my memory of the experiment was that she lasted for a couple of days and then had to give up the experiment due to a catastrophic failure in predicted outcome

HAHAHAHAHA~! "Miscalculation" stories are always awesome, but that one is about as sweet as it gets~!

My logic was just about counting calories. For example a can of coke is only about 140 calories which is the same as maybe two biscuits, but for me at least the coke is much more filling. That said I know I was taking in too much sugar, plus I probably got hooked on the stuff Nonetheless it's surprising just how little calories there is in coke, certainly less than much other, non-diet, sodas and juice drinks.

You should watch the video I posted above. The guy goes through, in detail, exactly how and why a calories isn't just a calorie, and why calories from junk food (sugar and specifically fructose) are so bad. It's very enlightening, and very scary, especially after having been told the exact opposite for so many decades. (This information was buried available in 1972.)

Now it is about twenty ounces of pop per year. I never liked sweets much. My downfall was fats, probably inherited from Irish and Scottish ancestors. When I lived in Miami and the Keys for seven years everything was highly consumed. My wife hates fat so she has saved me there. *ALL* of my relatives have a problem with weight and I can't help thinking fat is the main cause for them. Calories matched to activity levels work for me.Cheers